TeaChat

OK - maybe there's something to you're rantings about pu. I had some very good pu in Beijing a couple years ago - but knew nothing about it. Last year I ordered some rishi pu and it was terrible. Coffee, bitter, dank. After getting edumacated... here, I now know it was a jingmai shu pu 0085. With my newfound knowledge, I ordered some sheng 7542 from teacuppa and am enjoying the 4th cup right now. Smokey, sweet, lingering. Much better!

Well... that's all from the post for now - but I might just start to keep a sideglance at you pu heads...

Glance away. We are all exhibitionists over here anyway. Could the Rishi pu have been cooked and the other two raw pu?

I'm sure the rishi was shu. The very excellent one I had at Dr. Tea in Beijing and the 7542 are both sheng.

Thats the problem, usually the first pu someone has is shu, they hate it and never come back again, On the other hand I give you credit for not only giving it another chance but learning about it. I'm glad you like your 7542 recipe cake, Its a classic! What year is it? I thinking about getting a few for aging.

shogun89 wrote:Thats the problem, usually the first pu someone has is shu, they hate it and never come back again, On the other hand I give you credit for not only giving it another chance but learning about it. I'm glad you like your 7542 recipe cake, Its a classic! What year is it? I thinking about getting a few for aging.

Exactly! Unfortunately, most peoples' experience with pu-erh is crappy mini tuos that produce and undrinkable swill. And consequently, turns them on from exploring pu-erh further. Just like folks who drink Corona beer while in Mexico. Corona is for tourist! If you ask any Mexican, they will tell you the same. As for the 7542, GET ALL OF THE CLASSIC RECIPES YOU CAN NOW so that you can have a drinkable and (drinkable is the operative word ), collection later.

has anyone had 7532? I have a cake of it (2008, first batch) and it's not bad.. but I've never tried 7542. My understanding (from reading about it on the LJ forum) is that the 7532 is a smaller production, maybe more of a collector's edition... But I haven't heard from anyone who's tried both. Anyone? Bueller? :)

Dizzwave wrote:has anyone had 7532? I have a cake of it (2008, first batch) and it's not bad.. but I've never tried 7542. My understanding (from reading about it on the LJ forum) is that the 7532 is a smaller production, maybe more of a collector's edition... But I haven't heard from anyone who's tried both. Anyone? Bueller?

That cake should be better than the 7542 because you have grade 3 leaves. Never had it though. Is it Menghai?

Yep, it's Menghai.
I don't think that grade 3 is necessarily better than grade 4, the leaves are just picked closer to the bud. (That's all that the grade # means.) See my post toward the bottom of this page if interested (so I don't have to retype it ) : http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?p=58150

Dizzwave wrote:Yep, it's Menghai.
I don't think that grade 3 is necessarily better than grade 4, the leaves are just picked closer to the bud. (That's all that the grade # means.) See my post toward the bottom of this page if interested (so I don't have to retype it ) : http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?p=58150

That is correct. In fact, the 8582 recipe is quite popular and aging quite well.

Dizzwave wrote:has anyone had 7532? I have a cake of it (2008, first batch) and it's not bad.. but I've never tried 7542. My understanding (from reading about it on the LJ forum) is that the 7532 is a smaller production, maybe more of a collector's edition... But I haven't heard from anyone who's tried both. Anyone? Bueller?

The 7532 is hard to brew correctly as it is so strong, or at least that's my experience with it. If you take the time to get to know the tea through a few sessions, it rewards you by showing it's aging potential. A fantastic tea, and my favorite Menghai sheng recipe next to the always great 8582.

cool, thanks thanks. As it turns out I have a 7532 and an 8582 (both 2008), both of which I'll have to play with a bit, now that you've intrigued me. At first they were "good but not great" in my book, but I shall have to experiment a bit...

hop_goblin wrote:As for the 7542, GET ALL OF THE CLASSIC RECIPES YOU CAN NOW so that you can have a drinkable and (drinkable is the operative word ), collection later.

I'm not sure what that means - 7542 is the year/grade/region (?) right? So, I guess the 7542 a recipie made by many different producers. Any particulars you recommend? Oh geeze... not now... my wife is already on edge about these bloody pots... I think you guys are going to push me into a pumidor...

Bubba_tea wrote:

hop_goblin wrote:As for the 7542, GET ALL OF THE CLASSIC RECIPES YOU CAN NOW so that you can have a drinkable and (drinkable is the operative word ), collection later.

I'm not sure what that means - 7542 is the year/grade/region (?) right? So, I guess the 7542 a recipie made by many different producers. Any particulars you recommend? Oh geeze... not now... my wife is already on edge about these bloody pots... I think you guys are going to push me into a pumidor...

Bubba, go to my most recent post on by blog. I have just explained it in full detail.

www.ancientteahorseroad.blogspot.com

I know, shameless plug!

i was having a look over at hou de and came across this :

Q: What does 7542 or 8582 mean?
Started in 70’s, Yunnan pu-erh producers started to use this special coding system to trace and manage the production of huge varieties of pu-erhs. The following figure explains the basic formula of this system:


With the code 7542, "75" means that this recipe started being used in 1975. However, 7542 green cakes have been produced every year since 1975! "4" refers to the special "Blend" that was used to make this cake: raw leaves after harvest are usually sorted into 10 different grades. Then, the tea producer, following the "recipe", blend several grades of leaves together. Of course, sometime a single grade is used for a "blend". They may use one blend for the surface of the cake, and the other blend for the body. For example, 7542 green cake is usually made by 3~4 grade "blend" for the surface, and 5~6 grade "blend" for the body.

The fourth digit, "2", refers to the producing tea factory. As explained in the above figure, "2" refers to Meng Hai Tea Factory. Mostly you will see 1 ~ 4 as the last digit, but when a new tea factory being strated up, he will want to pick his own number if he is important enough.

So, "8582" means that they used a recipe that started in 1985, Level 8 blend, and was produced in Meng Hai Tea Factory. Usually you can tell from the code if the cake/brick is cooked or uncooked: for example, 7542 and 8582 are both uncooked(green) cakes, and 7572, 8592 and 7663 are all cooked pu-erhs.

The last three digits, XYZ, are usually not shown and hard to determine! But, definitely, even with the same "7542" different batches may exihibit different characetristics! "7542" during 70s had four different batches: 205, 206, 503, 504. Sometimes one batch is more compressed than other ones, especially if they were all compressed by stone molds instead of machines. The weather conditions also affects the characteristics of different batches: one batch may be sun-dried in a very sunny day, and the other batch may have to be assisted by burning pine woods to dry it. The later batch will naturally have more "smoky" feeling to it than the sun-dried batch.

It seems like everyone is also a big fan of recipe blends here. Obviously they are a more consistent and usually very strong puerh. So think back to some of your favorite young puerhs, where they blends or not? I am starting to think if these Menghai and Haiwan blends which are very cheap are the way to go versus the slightly more expensive Mengku stuff. The only raw blend I have ever had was the Gouyan 66 classic from PS, I thought this was pretty good, except the smokiness wasn't to impressive, Overall I could see myself calling that an everyday tea. In my opinion you cant drink the good stuff all the time because then your just spoiled and the good stuff is average.